Lignocellulosic biomass is widely recognized as a promising source of raw material for production of renewable fuels and chemicals. The primary obstacle impeding the more widespread production of energy from biomass feedstocks is the general absence of low-cost technology for overcoming the recalcitrance of these materials to conversion into useful fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass contains carbohydrate fractions (e.g., cellulose and hemicellulose) that can be converted into ethanol. In order to convert these fractions, the cellulose and hemicellulose must ultimately be converted or hydrolyzed into monosaccharides; it is the hydrolysis that has historically proven to be problematic.
Biologically mediated processes are promising for energy conversion, in particular for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into fuels. Biomass processing schemes involving enzymatic or microbial hydrolysis commonly involve four biologically mediated transformations: (1) the production of saccharolytic enzymes (cellulases and hemicellulases); (2) the hydrolysis of carbohydrate components present in pretreated biomass to sugars; (3) the fermentation of hexose sugars (e.g., glucose, mannose, and galactose); and (4) the fermentation of pentose sugars (e.g., xylose and arabinose). These four transformations occur in a single step in a process configuration called consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), which is distinguished from other less highly integrated configurations in that it does not involve a dedicated process step for cellulase and/or hemicellulase production.
CBP offers the potential for lower cost and higher efficiency than processes featuring dedicated cellulase production. The benefits result in part from avoided capital costs, substrate and other raw materials, and utilities associated with cellulase production. In addition, several factors support the realization of higher rates of hydrolysis, and hence reduced reactor volume and capital investment using CBP, including enzyme-microbe synergy and the use of thermophilic organisms and/or complexed cellulase systems. Moreover, cellulose-adherent cellulolytic microorganisms are likely to compete successfully for products of cellulose hydrolysis with non-adhered microbes, e.g., contaminants, which could increase the stability of industrial processes based on microbial cellulose utilization. Progress in developing CBP-enabling microorganisms is being made through two strategies: engineering naturally occurring cellulolytic microorganisms to improve product-related properties, such as yield and titer, and engineering non-cellulolytic organisms that exhibit high product yields and titers to express a heterologous cellulase and hemicellulase system enabling cellulose and hemicellulose utilization.
Three major types of enzymatic activities are required for native cellulose degradation: The first type are endoglucanases (1,4-β-D-glucan 4-glucanohydrolases; EC 3.2.1.4). Endoglucanases cut at random in the cellulose polysaccharide chain of amorphous cellulose, generating oligosaccharides of varying lengths and consequently new chain ends. The second type are exoglucanases, including cellodextrinases (1,4-β-D-glucan glucanohydrolases; EC 3.2.1.74) and cellobiohydrolases (1,4-β-D-glucan cellobiohydrolases; EC 3.2.1.91). Exoglucanases act in a processive manner on the reducing or non-reducing ends of cellulose polysaccharide chains, liberating either glucose (glucanohydrolases) or cellobiose (cellobiohydrolase) as major products. Exoglucanases can also act on microcrystalline cellulose, presumably peeling cellulose chains from the microcrystalline structure. The third type are β-glucosidases β-glucoside glucohydrolases; EC 3.2.1.21). β-Glucosidases hydrolyze soluble cellodextrins and cellobiose to glucose units.
Bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) remains the preferred micro-organism for the production of ethanol (Hahn-Hagerdal, B., et al., Adv. Biochem. Eng. Biotechnol. 73, 53-84 (2001)). Favorable attributes of this microbe include (i) high productivity at close to theoretical yields (0.51 g ethanol produced/g glucose used), (ii) high osmo- and ethanol tolerance, (iii) natural robustness in industrial processes, and (iv) being generally regarded as safe (GRAS) due to its long association with wine and bread making, and beer brewing. Furthermore, S. cerevisiae exhibits tolerance to inhibitors commonly found in hydrolyzates resulting from biomass pretreatment.
One major shortcoming of S. cerevisiae is its inability to utilize complex polysaccharides such as cellulose, or its break-down products, such as cellobiose and cellodextrins. In attempt to address this problem, several heterologous cellulases from bacterial and fungal sources have been transferred to S. cerevisiae, enabling the degradation of cellulosic derivatives (Van Rensburg, P., et al., Yeast 14, 67-76 (1998)), or growth on cellobiose (Van Rooyen, R., et al., J. Biotech. 120, 284-295 (2005)); McBride, J. E., et al., Enzyme Microb. Techol. 37, 93-101 (2005)). However, current levels of expression and specific activity of cellulases heterologously expressed in yeast are still not sufficient to enable efficient growth and ethanol production by yeast on cellulosic substrates without externally added enzymes. There remains a significant need for improvement in the amount of cellulase activity in order to attain the goal of achieving a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) system capable of efficiently and cost-effectively converting cellulosic substrates to ethanol.
Another major shortcoming of the use of S. cerevisiae is that externally produced cellulases function optimally at a higher temperature than the temperature at which S. cerevisiae function optimally. Thus, either the processing must be carried out in a two step process at two different temperatures or one temperature can be selected where both processes function to some extent, but at least one of the processes does not occur at optimal efficiency.
In order to address these limitations, the present invention provides for heterologous expression of wild-type and codon-optimized combinations of heterologous cellulases in yeast that allows efficient production of ethanol from cellulose sources. The invention also provides for expression of such heterologous cellulases in theromtolerant yeast and methods of using such transformed yeast for ethanol production.